398 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



of the natural gases of native metals, especially gold and iron, 

 may throw considerable light on their formation. The iron of the 

 weil-known Lenarto fall (which, from its purity, 'appears to be well 

 adapted for the experiment) gave, when distilled in vacuo by 

 means of Sprengel's mercurial exhauster, 2'8 times its volume of 

 gas, of which 85 per cent, was hydrogen, the remainder being 

 nitrogen, and a small amount of carbonic oxide. Messrs. Huggins 

 and Miller have established the presence of hydrogen in the 

 atmosphere of those fixed stars of which Alpha Lyra is the type. 

 It is probable, therefore, that the iron must have occluded its 

 hydrogen from a similar source. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY— May. 8. 



Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On New Specimens of Eozoon." By Sir W. E. Logan, 

 F.P.S., F.G.S. — Amongst several additional specimens of Eozoon 

 which have been obtained during recent explorations of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey, is one which was found last summer by Mr. 

 G. H. Vennor, in the township of Tudor, county of Hastings, 

 Canada West. It occurred on the surface of a layer, three inches 

 in thickness, of dark-grey micaceous limestone, or calc-schist, near 

 the middle of a great zone of similar rock. This Tudor limestone 

 is comparatively unaltered, and in the specimen obtained from it 

 the skeleton of the fossil, consisting of white carbonate of lime, is 

 imbedded in the limestone without the presence of serpentine or 

 other silicate, a fact which the author regarded as extremely 

 favourable to the view of the organic origin of Eozoon. Sir William 

 Logan also described the nature and relations of the rocks of other 

 localities which have recently yielded Eozoon, especially Wentworth, 

 Long Lake, and Cote St. Pierre. 



2. " Notes on Fossils recently obtained from the Laurentian 

 rocks OF Canada, and on objections to the organic nature of Eozoon." 

 By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.— The first specimen 

 described in this paper was the one from Tudor referred to in the 

 previous communication. Its examination had enabled Mr. Dawson 

 to state that in it the chambers are more continuous, and wider, in 

 proportion to the thickness of the septa, than in the specimens 

 found elsewhere, and that the canal system is more delicate and 

 indistinct. Without additional specimens the author could not 

 decide whether these differences are of specific value, or depend on 

 age, variability, or state of preservation ; he therefore referred the 

 specimen provisionally to Eo7coon Canadense, regarding it as a young 

 individual, broken from its attachment and imbedded in a sandy 

 calcareous mud. Its discovery afforded him the hope that the 

 comparatively unaltered sediments in which it had been preserved, 

 and which have also yielded worm-burrows, will hereafter still 

 more largely illustrate the Laurentian fauna. After giving short 



